It isn’t new, and it is brand new. In fact, the newest trend in education is to un-school your kids.

Un-schooling

Watch this TED talk by Sugata Mitra, professor of Educational Technology at the School of Education, Communication and Language Sciences at Newcastle University, England. He is best known for his “Hole in the Wall” experiment, and widely cited in works on literacy and education. He is Chief Scientist, Emeritus,at the for-profit training company NIIT. He won the TED Prize 2013.

The radical unschooling revolution has begun.

And yet, since the birth of humanity we have been unschooling and home-schooling our children. Animals have been doing it for ever, and as part of the animal kingdom, humans did it, have done it and are doing it too.

What makes us better than other animals that we have to “go to school”?

Do we even need school qualifications to participate in the world as an adult and to raise a family, be a caretaker, be kind, live green and responsibly, be free?

Freedom to learn

Another good link is Peter Gray’s Freedom To Learn where he states that children learn by themselves and that teachers, parents and other well meaning parties do not have to do the learning for the kids.

Is unschooling legal?

There are many young entrepreneurs stories that blow the mind. And there are many young entrepreneurs under 18 that will blow your socks off!

What part does school play in becoming successful entrepreneur?

Is unschooling legal? It is contentious and there are many unschooling laws, different ones for different counties, all over the internet. There is even an unschooling blog which you can check out. For South Aficans there is the Homeschool Info South Africa that gives parents all over the world light bulb ideas of how to use the world around us as their living classroom.

Old school

Sending kids to schools away from home, to day school or boarding school, is in fact a very British Colonial thing to do – from 2 centuries ago! Most kids feel it’s like a prison sentence…

New school

The education psychologist Stephen Grey has a very brilliant and thought provoking book called Free To Learn where he handles it all. Beautifully written and a serious eye-opener. And this “alternative” education to conventional schooling is, more often than not, free.

“Sunset Party Dancing Girl Silhouette” by D. Sharon Pruitt

Parent school

But education isn’t just about the kids. In fact, more often than not it is more about the parents.

When I walk my dogs and come across other dogs, I can immediately tell if the dogs are trained or not. In other words, I can immediately tell if the owners are trained or not. A badly behaved dog is directly due to a badly behaving owner – “bad” doggy means “bad” owner. Without fail.

Same with kids.

How to get a “good” parent so we get good kids?

According to Mia Von Scha, Transformational Parenting Guru, parents share a common goal with kids: we want to raise kids that are confident and empowered, and kids that can reach their unlimited potential.

“Do you want to raise an unlimited child?

Then you first need to raise an unlimited you! Everyone is born with infinite potential – with the ability to heal and grow and create the life of their dreams – this is not only your birthright, but also your responsibility, as by living your dreams you inspire the people around you, particularly the children in your life, to do the same,” says Mia.